The whole idea with this version is to make the experience less frustrating and more fun. The map is easier to win, but still proves to be a challenge. Several changes were suggested by the community! Thanks for all the feedback! This version has a lot of small changes - but very small changes can make a big difference!

Full changelog (Detailed descriptions):

- Due to the name length of the previous vpk "helms_deep_reborn_v16" a lot of MAC users were unable to properly install the vpk. This major bug should now be fixed, the vpk name has been shortened to "helms_dr17".

- Fixed a major graphics issue: The day sky will no longer be pink/black checkered when shader is set to low in options.

- Added a new melee weapon! Sword and shield combination. The new melee weapon was created by Splinks exclusively for Helm's Deep Reborn (using existing detail models from the map). In order to make the new melee more unique there's only 1 in the map, it can be found in the armory at the start. The new melee weapon deals more damage compared to some other melee weapons (Note: There are still weapons placed on walls as detail. If a shield/sword etc. doesn't glow you can't pick it up).

- All players survival record (time) has been reset to 0.

- Added a new high resolution loading screen, created in collaboration with Tsar.

- Added a new dynamic 3d-skybox created by Logan Dougall for me (SeriouS_Samurai) exclusively. Logan Dougall is the Vice President, Content Division @ Gamebanana. Even though Logan did a great job I am still open to the idea of being able to change the actual sky instead of using this current method of having a night to day cycle in a single map.

- Added some things from the upcoming movie "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey" in the map. Can you find these "things" in the map?

- New dynamic Legolas NPC! The new Legolas model was rigged by Splinks for Helm's Deep Reborn exclusively. Instead of Legolas just being a random detail he will now improve gameplay and enchance the story telling aswell as making the entire map less empty. Legolas uses animations never before seen in L4D2. Legolas will mainly block small pathways and work as a replacement for some invisible walls. 1. Legolas will stand at the bottom the stairs which you use to fall back at approx. 7mins and he will run up the stairs when you need to fall back. This is better than just having invisible walls that confuse players, this method is also better than having a door that breaks/opens because the NPC will work as a guide for the players when the NPC falls back.

2. Legolas will stand in front of the burning hay in the tunnel so griefers/inexperienced players can't trigger the gate event too early (This was perhaps the most frustrating that could happen and resulted in many vote kicks). a) When Legolas is standing in front of the burning hay in the tunnel he will automatically move at approx. 9 mins.

b) Legolas will also automatically move when enemies are near (when enemies are about to enter the tunnel), so you don't have to hold until 9 mins - this is great if only 1 player is alive and the player needs to go back much earlier in order to survive.

3. Legolas will stand at the bottom of the stairs that lead up to the second floor inside the keep. This is because players would go up too early and bring down items from the second floor instead of using the items from the armory and from the Great hall. a) Legolas will move a few seconds before the horses block the armory.

The dynamic NPC (Legolas) does not use a modern weapon to assist the survivors. The dynamic NPC (Legolas) does not heal players because then players would always hug the NPC and try to save their medkits and pills.

- Shortened game time (due to community feedback about having to defend some areas for too long). Take note that only the maximum time intervals have been lowered (see list below). a) Reduced the maximum time interval for the deeping wall to break/explode by 8 seconds.

b) Reduced the maximum time interval for fall back (up the long stairs) by 8 seconds.

c) Reduced the maximum time interval for the keep to open by 8 seconds.

d) The sun rise (and when the tower opens etc.) is no longer based on how fast you kill/pass the witch, instead the sun rise is automatically controlled by time. If players didn't kill/pass the witch fast enough the sun rise would be delayed anywhere from 1 second to infinity in the old version (usually the delay was about 15-30 sec). This change also solves the issue with long silent pauses after 25+ mins due to the LOTR music not playing longer.

e) When the sun rises and maximum tank spawn starts, tanks will now spawn outside the keep instead of spawning at the bottom of the tower at the mountain section. This greatly reduces their walking distance to the top of the tower. This doesn't necessarily mean that it will be impossible to camp the Great Hall and the stairs in the tower once the sun rises, but it will be harder. This encourages players to meet at the top of the tower faster and therefore reducing game time. In addition, approximately 33% of the common infected will also spawn outside the keep in order to reduce the common infecteds walking distance.

- The door closests to the survivor spawn zone will now start open (to make the start "less claustrofobic", but also to reveal other parts of the map). The dynamic NPC (Legolas) will first appear standing in the doorway where the door has been deleted, here players will early experience that the dynamic NPC is blocking. The remaining door which is used to start the battle has a 3 seconds use time (press and hold use button feature), all players are more likely to be ready before someone decides to start, this also reduces the chance of a player accidentally starting the battle. With only 1 door it should also be much easier to see who started the map, and the door also glows which makes it less confusing for beginners how to start the map.

- Increased the time until the enemies attack the gate by 10 sec (Gives more time to respawn dead players, setup gascans etc. but it's also necessary with more/longer pauses so it's not constant action all the time).

- Increased gate hp from 20hp to 100hp.

- The burning hay in the tunnel will continue to burn for another 19 seconds after you've lost the gate. The burning hay will burn a total of 25 seconds after you've lost the gate, which is more than enough time for all players to safely retreat. In addition the paths on the sides of the Hornburg unlock 10 seconds later for the enemies after you've lost the gate.

- Deleted the horn sound (at the start of the battle). (This will make the music sound better and voice chat becomes less noisy. This change also makes the scenario more accurate to the movie and you get no headache by starting the map, the sound was simply too annoying, too loud).

- Reduced the time it takes to turn off the LOTR music by 2 sec (the lever in the armory - it takes neither too long nor too short to turn the music off).

- Reduced the time it takes to use a respawn-lever from 6 sec to 4 sec (the levers used to teleport dead players). A respawn-lever can still only be used once, however I deleted the description: "Can only be used once", because it sounded a bit disencouraging while using a respawn-lever.

- Special thanks to The Fish for making a final and more optimized version of his Respawn Script (teleport dead players) exclusively for Helm's Deep Reborn (The script no longer sends out unnecessary messages in console etc.)

- Tweaked common infected spawns slightly for a "less frustrating" experience. In addition some enemy spawn points are more out of sight for players.

--- ITEMS ---

- Hunting rifle now only has 1 weapon in each weapon entity (the previous value in the old version was 2 for the hunting rifle). The new value nerfs the weapon moving tactic, improves realism and works as a minor performance improvement.

- Deleted 1 machete in the armory.

- Deleted 1 cs knife in the armory (there's no point having this many melee weapons at the start, and now when there's only 1 cs knife it will become unique).

- Added an ammo pile on the second floor inside the keep. The ammo pile on the second floor inside the keep has enough ammo for 2 minutes and 10 seconds after the horses have blocked the armory.

- Reworked the defib placements for "worst case scenarios" (if only 1 player is alive and he/she needs to respawn the entire team) (see list below). a) After you jumped over the burning hay there would be 1 defib at the weapon stack, this defib has now been moved to the first respawn-lever.

b) Added an additional defib by the first respawn-lever, there are a total of 2 defibs close to the first respawn-lever.

c) Added 2 defibs by the second respawn-lever inside the keep.

d) When you win the map 1 defib will appear in the armory on the small table.

- Added 1 pipe bomb at the top of the stairs which you use to fall back at approx. 7mins.

- Replaced 1 propane tank (white explosive) with 1 pipe bomb left of the entrance of the keep.

- Most of the items in the Great Hall (King's Throne) will appear after the players have left the armory so no player can shoot or toss a pipe bomb and trigger the explosives at the start - and so items don't glow through the dynamic NPC (Legolas) at the start of the map.

- The texture used on the fortress wall's floor (outdoors) no longer reflects the sky (because it was unrealistic, distracting and made it a bit hard to see items that were placed in these areas).

- Fixed all known gaps where you could see outside the map (Because the sky and overall atmosphere has been made brighter some extremely small gaps between brushes etc. became more visible).

- Fixed the water behind the Deeping wall not obeying gravity.

- Minor design improvements.

--- VPK ---

- Deleted hyphens from the map name and the description "Scripts" (in Extras -> Add-ons because this description was considered to be confusing, even though the vpk does contain unique scripts).

- Added a new add-on image.

- Updated advertising of different Steam Group Servers (Server logos appear after you win - the reason why I don't choose to display server logos in the beginning of the map is because it can ruin the map atmosphere).

- Deleted fan art made by Action-Crab of the Lord of the Rings campaign (the fan art will be placed where it belongs - in the upcoming Lord of the Rings campaign developed by me which includes 4 epic maps. The fan art of Helm's Deep Reborn which was also made by Action-Crab has not been deleted).

- Updated the readme.txt file inside the vpk (credits etc.).

--- FIXES ---

- Fixed a rare bug that caused the first soundtrack-mix to continue to play until approx. 30mins.

- Sometimes the rain would continue eventhough the sun has risen, this bug should now be fixed.

- Fixed a bug that caused more enemies to spawn during the gate event than intended.

- Fixed a bug that caused enemies to continue to spawn after you won the map.

- Improved the stop trigger for slow motion. It now fires from a more reliable source, it should work 100% now. (If all players died during slow motion at the Gandalf event the next round had a small chance of being permanently in slow motion and the only way to end it was to go back to lobby). If there are still bugs related with the slow motion please let me know.

- Rebuilt player push by the zombie spawns properly (far out in the field outside the fortress) (see list below). a) Players can no longer climb up on the big rock by the main zombie spawn location.

b) Stronger push by the zombie spawns to prevent players from glitching with the adrenaline item.

c) Servers with plugins such as gravity, 8 player etc. can no longer push through and camp the spawns or cause players to get stuck at the zombie spawns.

d) Charges pushing players into the zombie spawns will longer cause players to get stuck.

e) Players can no longer access the bridge that leads to the gate at the start of the map. Same thing during the Gandalf event, once you reach the field and Gandalf arrives you can't run back to the fortress using the bridge.

f) Fixed the duration of the player push by the enemy spawns being too short.

- Fixed an error message (cubemap overlay) in console at the start of the map.

- Fixed some dynamic invisible walls being enabled a bit too long.

- Players using cheats such as "noclip" can no longer "half-start" the map (Moved outputs from the horn entity at the top of the tower to the door in the armory which you use to start the map).

- Enemies/Bots should no longer get stuck when trying to climb up the 3 ladders against the Deeping wall.

- Players can no longer camp the glitchy mountain sections between the bridge and the deeping wall.

- Fixed players being able to manually open the keep door outwards moments before it auto-opens and cause enemies to get stuck.

- Tweaked an entity that is used to spawn common infected, so the common infected don't spawn and instant die during the first phase of the Gandalf event.

- Fixed the last area where chargers could cause players to get stuck (next to the tower at the hornburgs outer wall by the mountain section).

- All wooden boxes are now breakable by the infected and by the survivors aswell. In addition, all wooden boxes have an increased hp from 20hp to 50hp.

- Fixed a glitchy spot at the top of the tower.

- Pressing use button (default "e") on the horn that Gimli is holding will no longer play the "use animation" for the player.

- Fixed bots completely freezing and tanks not being able to reach survivors in areas (see list below). a) Fixed tanks not being able to reach survivors/bots completely freezing inside the keep by the 3 boxes to the left as you enter the keep.

b) -||- on the hay bales/5 wooden boxes outside the keep by the small tunnel to the left as you exit the keep.

c) -||- at the bottom of the stairs in the tower by the 4 boxes.

d) -||- by all the wooden boxes from the gate leading up (the ramp) to the keep.

e) -||- by the 3 wooden boxes by the ladder to the far left side of the gate.

f) -||- by the wooden box after you exit the long tunnel (after the burning hay).

g) -||- by the 4 boxes above the gate.

h) -||- by the 6 boxes at the bottom of the stairs that you use to fall back at approx. 7 mins.

i) -||- by the 2 wooden boxes at the top of the stairs that you use to fall back at approx. 7 mins.

j) -||- by the 5 boxes to the right as you exit the keep.

k) -||- by the conrete/stone mini pillar above the gate.

l) -||- by the conrete/stone mini pillar on the far left side of the deeping wall.

m) -||- by the conrete/stone mini pillar outside the keep (close to the witch).

- Fixed enemies sometimes spawning under a displacement.

- It's no longer possible to camp the glitchy edges right after you exit the tunnel (after you've passed the burning hay). In addition, tanks can no longer push survivors over these edges into certain death (These new invisible walls will disappear when you win the map). Bots would also freeze if they stood on these edges.

- Fixed players being able to stand on a super small edge by the l4d1 bots.

- Fixed players being able to stand on a super small edge at the Deeping wall edge far to the left side.

- When standing on the second floor inside the keep by the windows it is no longer possible to jump down on the stone torches.

- Fixed players getting smashed by tanks up to a buggy area behind the L4D1 bots location.

- The Hornburgs inner wall edge is no longer breakable by enemies. In addition the entire edge is no longer glitchy, bots won't freeze and tanks will be able to reach players.

- The Hornburgs outer wall edge is no longer breakable by the enemies. In addition the entire edge is no longer glitchy, bots won't freeze and tanks will be able to reach players.

- Fixed players being able to float in a specific spot in the stables area.

- Fixed bots standing in some bad places.

- Map textures no longer appear in the custom spray list in options.

- Improved nav around the section of the Deeping wall that breaks/explodes.

- Fixed one of the passages between the armory and the great hall not teleporting players/killing zombies/blocking armory properly when the horses go rampage.

- Fixed players getting stuck in/between the logs outside the keep, close to the witch.

- Fixed a cause to why tanks didn't appear after the horses blocked the armory.

- "Fall back" hint (and console message) no longer in caps lock.

- Fixed players being able to stand on 2 glitched edges inside the Great hall (the Rohan flags by the King's throne) when playing on servers with low gravity.

- The entire Deeping wall edge is no longer breakable. The edge is no longer glitchy (tanks should now be able to reach players).

b)"Map Refresher Baisc" pre-calculates slightly slower but still within the time limit of the screen fade at the beginning of the map.

c) Disabled Legolas('s) shadow. In addition, all func_illusionary have been changed into func_brush + disabled shadow/receive shadow for these.

d) Deleted double/unnecessary outputs because more testing has been done and these outputs were a bit overkill to ensure that there were less bugs.

e) Fixed some areaportals being badly placed.

f) Optimized the size of some triggers/brushes etc.

g) Merged all nav areas that could be safely merged.

h) Deleted unnecessary connections in nav.

i) It should no longer rain below the map in some areas.

j) Deleted unnecessary nav areas.

k) Deleted minor detail outside the fortress far to the left side.

l) No more unnecessary entity parents.

m) Perfected fade distance of all models, overlays and particles (Not only does this improve performance but it also fixes some visual errors).

n) Deleted displacements that would appear when fortress concrete/stone edge parts would break.

o) Deleted clusters of brushes and rebuilt using only 1 brush for each respective area throughout the map. Mostly invisible walls have been rebuilt but also the fortress itself has been rebuilt in a much more optimized way. Apart from optimization this also smooths out player movement when walking into these brushes and players/npcs should no longer appear to be floating in areas.

p) Changed a prop_dynamic into prop_static (This model was supposed to have it's properties changed in version 16 but it managed to slip past my detection).

q) Changed FarZ Clip Plane from 7400 to 7300.

r) Added nodraw on the concrete/stone edges that are no longer breakable.

s) Fixed some brushes not being func_detail.

t) Tweaked lightmap scale on displacement Rohan flags that are covered by overlays.